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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) represents another
part of
Pakistan's political spectrum. The PPP was a vehicle for
the
political ambitions of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. His immediate
aim was
to bring down the government of his former political
mentor, Ayub
Khan. The party's inaugural convention was held in Lahore
in
1967. The PPP adopted the slogan "Islam our Faith,
Democracy our
Polity, Socialism our Economy." The party, like its
founder, was
enigmatic and full of contradictions. A left-leaning
populist
movement, the PPP attempted to blend Islam with socialism.
The
PPP espoused such policies as land reform to help the
peasants;
nationalization of industries to weaken the
industrialists; and
administrative reforms to reduce the power of the
bureaucrats.
The party, however, was built on the foundations of the
wealthy,
landed elite, Pakistan's traditional ruling class.
The PPP came to power in December 1971 after the loss
of East
Pakistan, when Bhutto was sworn in as president and chief
martial
law administrator. Bhutto lifted martial law in April 1972
and in
1973 stepped down as president and became prime minister.
The PPP
did little to advance the first two tenets of its
platform, Islam
and democracy, but promoted socialism with a vengeance.
Bhutto
nationalized large-scale industries, insurance companies,
and
commercial banks, and he set up a number of public
corporations
to expand the role of the government in commerce,
construction,
and transportation. The heavy hand with which Bhutto and
the PPP
exerted their power aroused widespread resentment. Matters
came
to a head in 1977 when the PPP won 155 of the 200 seats in
the
National Assembly with 58 percent of the total votes cast.
The
Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), a coalition of nine
opposition
parties and with 35 percent of the votes, won only
thirty-six
seats. The PNA charged widespread electoral fraud, and the
resulting PPP-PNA confrontation and the accompanying civil
unrest
precipitated the imposition of martial law.
The survival of Bhutto's party after his execution in
1979
was facilitated by dynastic politics. His widow Nusrat and
his
daughter Benazir, led the party as cochairpersons. During
martial
law, the PPP joined with ten other parties in the Movement
for
the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) to pressure the Zia
government
to hold free elections under the 1973 constitution. Four
of the
MRD's component parties were members of the PNA, which had
been
formed to oppose the PPP in the 1977 elections. The PPP
joined
the MRD coalition, hoping the military would be prepared
to
negotiate with the MRD if it were part of a larger
political
alliance.
The MRD campaign launched in February 1981 appeared to
gain
momentum. In March 1981, however, a Pakistan International
Airlines aircraft was hijacked by terrorists demanding the
release of political prisoners. The hijacking was the work
of an
organization--Al-Zulfiqar--allegedly run by Bhutto's son,
Murtaza. Although the PPP dissociated itself from the
episode,
the hijacking was a major setback for both the PPP and the
MRD.
Another MRD agitation failed in 1983. After Zia's death in
1988,
the MRD was dissolved, and the PPP, the largest party in
the
alliance, contested the 1988 elections on its own.
Although the
PPP emerged as the single largest party in the National
Assembly
as a result of the 1988 elections, it won a narrow
plurality, and
only with the support of the Refugee People's Movement
(Muhajir
Qaumi Mahaz--MQM) and other parties was it able to form a
government. After a troubled period in power, the PPP
government
was dismissed by President Ishaq Khan in 1990. The PPP was
the
principal member of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance
(PDA), which
lost the 1990 elections to the IJI. The PDA blamed its
defeat on
alleged tampering with the vote. The National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs, an international
observer
team, did note irregularities in the election but declared
that
the ultimate outcome was in general accordance with the
popular
will.
In the October 1993 general elections that returned
Benazir
to power, the PPP won eighty-six of the 217 seats in the
National
Assembly, while Nawaz Sharif's PML-N won seventy-two. The
PPP was
successful in forming a coalition with other parties to
control a
block of 121 seats.
Data as of April 1994
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